Equity involves providing individuals with the accessibility resources and support they specifically need to overcome barriers and achieve equal outcomes. It recognizes that people come from diverse backgrounds and may require different levels of assistance to reach the same starting point. However, the Universal Design Learning (UDL) places emphasis on removing barriers to learning, so that all learners have access to the same learning opportunities. Rather than focusing on ways of facilitating and overcoming learning obstacles, UDL focuses on removing learning obstacles. The foundation of planning with UDL in mind involves recognizing the obstacles in the design rather than categorizing the challenges faced by the learner. Adopting this learning approach would allow all individuals to reach the same learning outcomes with out requiring additional support. Therefore in order to create optimal learning experiences for every learner, we must reduce or eliminating any potential obstacles within our learning designs.
The goal of UDL is to create a flexible and inclusive educational environment where diverse learners can access, engage with, and succeed in their learning experiences. UDL aims to accommodate diverse learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds by providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression, thus promoting equitable and effective learning for all students.
Therefore, when designing a lesson, it is essential to take into account a wide range of learning backgrounds and abilities. The advancements of technology open doors to many learning possibilities, making learning more inclusive and accessible to a variety of learning styles. For instance, technology and social media allow learners to learn remotely, learn at their own pace, and engage and interact comfortably. Incorporating learning tools such as ‘text-to-speech’, subtitles and headers, class recordings, simple fonts, and images into learning designs is a good way to accommodate different learning needs.
As technology and social media become increasingly prevalent, it also becomes a widely useful tool for educators and learners. Instructors can use social media to relay updates about learning activities, and stay connected to students and their learning progress. Furthermore, it offers an interactive space like discussion forums, allowing for the flow of questions, exchange of ideas, and active communication.
Incase of unexpected events such as the pandemic, or even injury or illness, social media and technological tools provide the opportunity for remote learning. This may include the use of google classroom, online discussion forums, and is a great way for students to interact with teachers and peers, collaborate and share information. Recognizing diverse learning needs and unexpected events is important when creating a learning design.
Technology and social media allow educators to expand their methods of delivery by implementing a variety to learning tools, such as; YouTube videos, Powerpoints, interactive educational games such as ‘Quizlet’ or ‘Kahoot,’ discussion forums, shared Google docs, flipped class room etc. Creating learning designs that resonate with diverse student learning abilities and preferences includes them in the learning process.
In times of unforeseen challenges, social media’s potential to enable communication, collaboration, engagement, and support emerges as a valuable asset, promoting accessible and inclusive education for diverse learners. Therefore, it is important to implement a variety of tools into my group’s planned learning activities for our interactive learning design. This may include using a variety of videos, online discussions, and activities, while making sure they include the principles of inclusive learning and UDL. This is where the capacity for online remote learning become essential. Therefore incorporating all learning resources to an accessible online platform like bright space or google classroom becomes especially useful. Including direct instruction, links, and constant updates. It also becomes useful to incorporate methods for active communication such as Mattermost, discussion forums, or shared google docs.